Digital media such as video, audio or games can be transmitted to a device via a wired or wireless connection. Upon reception of the digital media, the device may display (or “render”) the digital media using a media player. If desired, the digital media can be stored on the device for future rendering by the media player.
To discourage unauthorized distribution or rendering of digital media, security mechanisms such as cryptography and “watermarking” have been used. With cryptography, a device is able to render the digital media only after decryption is successful. If the digital media is stored in its encrypted form, distribution of the encrypted digital media is unprofitable without access to the decryption key (i.e., the digital media cannot be rendered). With watermarking, digital media can be marked to identify the source of the digital media. If the watermark is missing, the digital media can be presumed to be unauthorized or otherwise invalid. In such case, a media player can reject a request to render the digital media.